I'm in the mood to box up memories

As a young girl, my mum had this box stuffed full of  old pieces of jewelry, obituary notices,  odd photos and such. She kept it in my Dad's highboy, in the top drawer.   I have always liked it and finally asked for it just before she died.  She said it was a stationary box.  I keep it out in view and this old teacup sits on top of it.

When I first decided to make a memory book , it was going to be a bound book.  But then I found the idea for a boxed portfolio in Fabric Memory Books by Lesley Riley.  Perfect!  I am in the mood to box up memories!

May Day!

Called Beltane by the  ancient Celts, May Day was halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.  It was a day for couples to pair; 6 weeks later, on Midsummer Day, some couples would marry, thus installing the tradition of June bridals.

Jo, The Sewing Geek, and few of her friends have paired up for the month of May to share our findings on the study of Lutradur with the followers of   ...and then we set it on fire.  I hope you will join us for our journey through this lovely month.  I hope it will be memorable.

My grandmother's name was May.  Her sister's name was Ellen.  My mum was Leila Ellen May.  I am Ellen May.  I kinda dropped the ball with my girls but my mum would have been delighted with Eliana which is Spanish for Ellen!  This month is about mothers and their daughters.  I'll be making memories and celebrating the creativity that is gifted to each of us in our own generation.

A box of memories filled with special mementos utilizing the variety of ways the mothers and daughters in this particular family capture special moments in time.  May we continue!

I'm already learning surprising things about the women in my family and I'm learning lots about Lutradur.

I am also reminded of that old game, 'Mother, may I?'.   I am going to ask questions concerning a material that would not have been familiar to women of the past but makes creating in this generation an whole lot of fun.   I hope that you will play along as well.

Lo the winter is past...

Remember that buried fence!  The snow has been moving down and back pretty rapidly this week.  Some snow and rain forecast for tomorrow but I'm believing we are over the hump.  Welcome Spring!

I am away at Sketchbook Skool and it is not too bad.  No detentions and I'm trying to do all my home work.  We aren't allowed to rip out any pages but I'm hopeful that the end the book will be better than the front.  ;^)  I am no sketcher but I'm finding that everyone has their own unique way of seeing, interpreting and then expressing what appeals and it can be very ordinary things but they need to be something the sketcher actually connects with-  my doll's glasses,  my very comfortable flip flops.

 (I understand 'thongs' is no longer politically correct).

I'm starting to make the DYLP my own and finding my groove.  This week was monochromatic.

The April showers wall hanging is about ready to have the strips attached.  I wonder how much it'll shrink on the sides.  :O

I have long wanted to do something with my grandmother's book that she pasted newspaper clippings of poems into.  I also found a sure fire cure for diptheria!  I found some newspaper quilt block patterns also.  I thought they were my mum's but she'd have been seven years old when they first began to be published and my mum didn't make any quilts.  My grandmother again.  She died when my mother was a teenager.  I wonder if she took this suitcase with her when she was in the hospital?   The wooden stationary box was my mum's and I always coveted it.  She kept odds and ends of old jewelry in it and obituary notices.  ??? Anyway, I'm combining an old idea and some new insight with a new to me technique and I'll be posting all about it next month. 

So as you can see, I have lots of reasons to spring ahead!

Clarifying and Consolidating the Calendar

There is something that is very appealing to me about recording the passage of time.  And of course, I luv planning things.  ;^)  Ha, it is a good thing my peanut gallery isn't watching me over my shoulder as I type!  But his focusing mantra really is starting to have some effect.  And I really am simplifying.  Focus, where was I?

I have done some record keeping in various forms and with some success.  Then I store away all the info.  I don't seem to be as successful at going back to look at it though.  But the memory isn't quite what it used to be if ever it was!  And just perhaps it might be of interest in the future, at least some of it.

 I leaped into the Calender page project that I saw some bloggers doing and I tried the calendar page layout and allowing for initial excitement I did keep it up and liked it.

I tried a different format and allowing for a week of flu time I still didn't really like just writing down what was happening.

Scrapbooking has never quite appealed although I have managed to accumulate a few scrapbooking supplies. 

I had thought to make my own scrap books for my kids but that has stalled as I felt it was too, well, amateurish.

The art journals and altered books are wonderful but I wondered about incorporating old photos in a pleasing manner.

Then I came across a post on the concept of a hybrid scrap book which includes traditional and digital scrapbooking.  I haven't quite mastered Photo shop Elements just yet!  lol  But putting photos onto the page and adding elements definitely has possibilities.

Then I travelled on further and deeper into blogging and found something called Project Life- a back to basics approach to memory making.  You can find out about it here.  I thought, Eureka!  I even went so far as to pick out my preferred binder and colour scheme, and ...   Well, you get the drift.

My birthday is in June and I thought why wait till January; I could do 'my' year.  Birthday to birthday.  What to do while the kit wound its way through my budget, the order system, and the postal system!   ???

What if...

I made my own?

I dug around for a spare binder.  Thank goodness I hadn't sent them all off to the thrift shop.  It can be decorated.   The individual pages need to support my mixed media messes.  I had saved all the file folders that I'd used for home schooling.  I'm a file fiend and I have lots.  I can slice the 1/4 inch off to fit the binder, I can make the holes with the hole punch, I can gesso them in preparation for all kinds of fun,  AND...

I can create weekly pages.

I can see how everything has led to this Aha! moment.  I can now sort, simplify, and organize all the loose memorabilia I have for each family member and work on them as I'm inspired by my own weekly page.  I can empty one whole filing cabinet drawer, keep everything in the one place, and impose some kind of limit on all the ephemera.  It is a good thing it is a legal sized drawer because I think I'll need to add the grand kiddies!  lol 

Now I have to make a full disclosure.  I still like the stuff over in the store over at Project Life  but it'll only be to enhance what I'll be already started on.  I also need to confess that the playroom/studio is one huge mess as I empty drawers, sort contents, gesso folders, and plan for the beginning of my brand new creative year.  I hope to have some good stuff to show for July 1st because time waits for no creative calendar girl!